Curse Of Me
by metalheadjunkie
Summary: Do you know what torture is? No. Have you ever suffered? No you haven't. You have never been alone have you. I mean truly alone. Everybody needs someone. This girl needs someone. She has no one. I'm sorry that you couldn't escape this curse of me.
1. The Circle

**OHSEESEE:**

-ahem-

Please note, that this story contains profanity, violence, use of alcohol, and sexual references. The story also switches between first person narrative and third person context.

Not too strong though :P Innuendos and whatnot.

**Storyline:**

This story mainly involves Neki and Jinx (Yes its Jinx from the games!) along with a few other notable faces. Both have had a rough life, the story delves into Nekis horrific childhood, Jinxes juvenile approach to life, and the significance they have on each others lives. Through tragedy and hardships they both lost faith in what is right and wrong. The story is entitled Curse Of Me.

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**Curse Of Me  
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_The Circle_

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_It was early spring, the day it happened. I remember running through the woods and brushing my hands against the Dewberry bushes. The Felora plants smelt so lovely that year. I was nine at that time. There was nothing I loved to do more than run barefoot through the Haven Forest and play all day by myself. I was home schooled and I had no friends, according to my mother, but I did have friends. I had plenty. They were all around me, the animals, the spirits, the faeries. I remember it like it was yesterday._

There was no breeze in the thick columned forest. Shafts of light burned through the verdant leaves. The forest floor was abundant in fresh flora, the sky was a pastel blue. The world was thrown into shades of blue and green. Birds chirped merrily in tune with one another. They swooped low and enter-twined in flight. The creek trickled noisily though the clearing. Small guppies made bubbles fly to the surface. A fawn sipped from the crystal waters and its mother chewed upon the fresh jade leaves on the other side of the creek.

She came running through the forest dragging her fingers against the sweet Dewberries, dangling from their leafy binds. She laughed and ran as if someone was chasing her. But no one followed. Glancing behind her she collapsed on her knees in the middle of the clearing. By this time, the fawn had raced off with its mother, fearing for its life.

**"My mother said i never should,**

**Play with Gypsies in the wood.**

**If I did she would say,**

**Naughty Girl to disobey!"**

She repeated the rhyme getting faster and faster, as she emptying the contents of her pockets. Some twigs, and berries, sprigs of Felora plants, and rose petals were some of the items which now lay on the forest floor. Neki gasped and scrambled to her feet, she dashed to the other side of the clearing, got down on her hands and knees. There on the ground was a ring of brown earth, where the mossy grass had not grown.

**"A faerie ring, a faerie ring! I found a faerie ring!"** she exclaimed, calling to no one. She pushed her blonde locks behind her ears and stared at the ring. She shut her eyes tight and repeated some inaudible word. Chanting, to see if the faeries would come. Would they come? In the mind she could see them dancing, beautiful petite creatures, hand in hand, dancing in a circle. Then they laughed and disappeared. Opening her eyes just for a peek she was disappointed that the faeries had ran away. She sighed and let her hands lie flat on her legs. She stared at the circle, and then she heard chanting. It was far away, it sounded as if they were shouting. Shouting to one another to come play and dance. They were running, and even though it was a very small noise she knew they were getting closer. They were coming. A grin spread on her face as she tried to see the first faerie burst out from the trees. But they did not come out in front of her. Now they bickered and used harsh tones to one another. They came from behind her but before she could turn around they already had her arms in their grasp and where dragging her across the clearing. And they were not faeries, they were men.

Neki cried out but they twisted her wrists harder and she bit her lips in pain. Tears streamed down her face, **"Let me go! Let me go! Stop it your hurting me!"** she yelled. Suddenly one of her captors grabbed her cardigan by the back and pulled her up from the ground. He was wearing a helmet and his face was scared and inky patterns strewn across it. His yellow teeth were bared at her and as he gritted them he spoke to her,  
**"Shut up you little bitch. Stop crying like a baby! Do you want your mommy?"** He laughed cruelly. Neki nodded without realising that she had given in. She wanted her mommy so bad, her parents were camping out in the forest nearby. Just for a holiday so they could spend time together. Why hadn't they come to rescue her?

The other captor laughed, **"Speak of the devil,"** he turned from where he was standing and nodded to the man restraining Neki. She opened her mouth to speak out that her mother was not a "devil" but stopped. Through the trees came another 3 men all in crimson uniform. They were guards of the city, and her father told her to stay away from them. But two of them had hold of her mother who was crying and trying desperately to yell through her gag that was savagely tightened round her mouth. She was shaking also and dripping with sweat, her hands were binded with cord, and Neki could see the raw skin beneath it.

**"Mama help me!"** cried out Neki who ran forward. Her captor grabbed her hair and pulled her back, giving her a slap over the cheek. Tears stung Nekis cheek and her mother yelled out and attempted to run over but was cruelly stopped with a knock in the stomach with the guards gun. She doubled over and fell to the ground still in the clutches of the guards.

**"Say your goodbyes," **laughed the guard holding Neki as he put a gun to her head. Neki squealed as the cold metal pressed into her head. Sweat trickled down her face. Her whole body shook. Her mother gasped and the look on her face full of lament stayed in Nekis mind to this day. Neki bit her lip and even though at this young age she was not prepared for what came after death, nor is anyone with half a mind, she tried to think of what it would be like to wander the earth as a spirit. But what came next, no one could ever be so unprepared for. As the captor put his hand on the trigger, one of her mothers captors stood forward brandishing a dagger he pulled her mother back and slide the cruel blade along her throat. Her mothers clothes soaked red instantly and her body was still upright as the guard was still holding it. In less than three seconds Nekis life was spared and her mothers taken.

A round of cheers came from the guards and Neki was thrown onto the forest floor. Her first instinct was to run, but she wanted to stay. She crept over to her mothers body as the guards all talked amongst each other of what to do next. She sniffed as tears rolled down her cheeks. Blood spattered her dress as she rolled her mother onto her back. She did not like the wound that was so vulgarly displayed on her mothers throat. She sniffed again as she turned her mothers head sideways and lay beside her, crying softly. Where was her father? Cruelly she heard the sound of a smooth blade inject itself into her mothers back. She looked up as the guard stood over her. **"Now, we will have no more of that crying business, ya here?"** he said in a serious voice. The laughter continued as the guards all approached the body kicking and standing on it ruthlessly. Neki crawled away to the other side of the clearing. She should run but where would she go? Suddenly two more guards entered the scene. An even bigger cheer went round the woods, as she peered around them to see the head of her father grasped by the hair in one of the new guards hands. Neki gasped and turned away, coughing up her lunch unceremoniously on the forest floor. After a few minutes she was grabbed roughly by a guard and half carried, half dragged along with them as they moved on.

_Not much happened after that, I was taken away to the prison. I don't remember the journey very much. My mind was elsewhere. With my parents. To see that kind of thing happen is shocking, but I wasn't scared. I didn't care what happened to me. I had no one to love me anymore._

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**End of Chapter one**

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	2. The Cell

**Info: R&R please. I would like some feedback. This is the second chapter in my story, Tripps makes his first entrance here. Tripps + Neki + Raynor + Rankin belong to meh! **

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**Curse Of Me  
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_The Cell_

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_If you have never been in prison you can never understand what we prisoners went through. It was as dark as night in that cold, damp cell. I often wondered if I would ever feel the suns warm rays reflect against my tarnished skin. And as the days rolled into one long nightmare I swore that I would live to see another beautiful sunset rest on the tips of the verdant mountains of Haven. _

_No matter how slow hours seemed to go, time passed quickly. I got older and more wiser during my stay. Inmates changed, guards changed but I stayed where I was, only growing wiser and more cunning. As far as i know I was a "captive." They didn't kill me like my parents because they wanted me to suffer on my father's behalf. He was in an underground movement at the time, and someone had betrayed us and the guards came for him. Why they killed my mother is still a mystery. My escape is something I still marvel at. Even if it did not go according to plan I still got out alive._

_You can never imagine what happens inside ones head when locked away in the darkness. I was so young, too young to be corrupted by these hooligans that kept us "in-line." My cell was very small and a few times especially when I was younger I was moved to Solitary confinement chambers for "observation." When I was 15, my second last year in the prison, I was moved into a cell with a guy named Tripps. We became short friends but of course this friendship was short-lived. At the time we shared a cell, we would often entertain each other by shouting profanity at the guards. Not a wise thing to do, as I would find out. Although it was a subject we avoided in each others company Tripps had committed the crimes they had him in for, whereas I had not. I grew up fast around him, he taught me things. Life things, he talked about things I never knew, after all I was only 5 when my parents died. I learned he was only 23, I was then 15 and the sights I had to see are not pleasant. I seen dead, and mutilated bodies as I was pushed down through the torture chambers, I seen freak "accidents" in the machinery rooms and I seen tragic deaths from desperate prisoners. _

_I was too young to see people die. Far too young. It was the guards! They were not nice to him. They provoked him when he was just trying to protect me! I remember guards swarming in pushing him back in his cell. I remember him pressing his bruised face against the cold bars of the bunks to ease the pain. I tried to look after him, I tried my best. I was sleeping when it happened, when they took him away. And as I slumbered in my nightmare world I recall soft skin against my cheek. I still wonder if he really did kiss me good-bye or if it was only in my dreams. It was his laugh that woke me up. A terrible cruel laugh that gargled away gasping for air just so it could laugh some more to stop itself from screaming. _

_After that I was put in solitary confinement until the day I broke free. I never heard or saw Tripps again and I was quite sure he had died that night. Murdered in the room where they torture us. The tortures, I've been made to witness many, and I thank Mar that my sessions with those fucking wankshafts were nothing like I have seen. It was not "sick," or pedophiliac, no they came later that year. I forget most of my time there or at least I try to. But I miss Tripps terribly, he was more than a friend, he was my everything. _

**"Chocolate!"** she said with a smile.

**"What? Chocolate? No it's definitely Alcohol for me."**

**"Never tried it,"** she simply shrugged.

**"What?!"**

**"Remember Tripps I was 5 when I was brought here. The best thing ever had was chocolate!" **She laughed pushing her back against the wall. Tripps was opposite her sitting against the other wall. His thin dreads hung over his face as he looked down at the floor where various scribbles and games had been etched into the cold flags. After a few seconds of silence Neki repeated, **"It's chocolate, that's what I miss the most!"**

He smirked, **"Well when we get out of this hell hole,I'll take you out, show you a good time, buy you a beer!"**

Neki raised an eyebrow, **"Oh a First date?"** She teased, but then added with seriousness. **"I'd love that, thank you."** Meanwhile Tripps had scrabbling away at the paint on the wall with what was left of his bitten fingernails.

**"We will get out of here soon, I promise and I'm not leaving you in here!"** He looked at her, sea blue eyes staring in honesty.

Neki hugged her knees, eyes shut tight. How she wanted to be somewhere else right now! But a part of her wanted to stay, to stay in the tiny cell with Tripps as her only company. A tear rolled down her cheek, she bit her lip and brushed her hair over her eye. She could not help it, more tears ran down her face silently. _What if she never got out? What if she never saw Tripps again? Would everyone she know leave her like her parents did?_ In this cell, there was only so much you could take.

**"Come here Neki,"** Tripps soothed making a motion was his hand. She simply sniffed and looked away but he didn't give up that easily. Azure eyes locked onto her again and she could feel his glare. She et out another sniff to break the minute of silence, and fell into a crawl towards him. He pulled her in and hugged her whispering, **"It's alright, I'm here."** He stroked her hair in their strange little cuddle on the cold cement floors. She gave a giggle through a fit of tears.

**"Tripps, Your _always_ here!"**He simply smiled and shook his head. After a few minutes of silence Neki spoke again, "**When we get out of here do you think we will ever see each other again?"** The cell was silent again. Neki bit her lip, her hopes fell. "_How could I think he would want to_." she thought. More tears rolled down her pink cheeks.

He hugged her tighter, **"Of course, we'll be together all the time,"** he spoke excitedly. He then added at a slower pace, **"Only if you want to of course...I understand if you don't. Your the best girl in the world, how could I not want to be with you!"**

Neki shrugged and looked at her feet, **"I'm the only girl here, Tripps!"** She was determined to actually make him tell the truth. You know, the truth where he doesn't like her one bit, not even a little tiny bit, and he is only trying to make her feel better. Even though she knew this was the truth, she secretly wished she was the best girl in his eyes. But did he really mean it?

**"Well I'm glad. And I'm glad that you notice me. And I'm glad you accept me even though I'm a criminal. And I'm glad that I'm locked in a cell with you,"** he smirked, **"In all my time in prison and even outside, I have never enjoyed being with someone as much as I do with you."**

_When I look back on that memory I always cry. It was the one time I would give anything to be back in prison. I so desperately try to remember the good times there. There is one day I often remember but only the first half was good. _

The guard trudged behind the convict sullenly as they turned up at his cell. **"I GOT SOAP!"** The convict yelled as the guard pulled back the cell door. He ushered him through and closed the door behind him. **"Yes!"** Neki replied jumping from the floor to grab a bar os pearly white soap from Tripps' hand. **"We got soap!"** they both shouted together.

**"...Tards"** muttered the guard who was named Rankin, as he walked back to the guard control base. The two inside fell about the floor,

**"It smells like...like soap...yeh. Motions passed."** She calmed down, Tripps dropped his smile and lazily threw his soap against the opposite wall. Annoying the guards and especially the gullible and sensitive guard Rankin, was their favourite past-time. Neki sighed, so much for excitement. Tripps frowned and reached over to retrieve his soap. He pressed up against the door, his long skinny face nearly fit through the bars. **"RANKIN LIKES COCK!!"** he yelled. Neki burst out laughing but stayed where she sat on the floor and yelled profanity from there.

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A few hours later a guard named Raynor came to relieve the much abused Guard Rankin. He sat placidly at the control panel, feet stretched out in front of him. The commotion from cell 333 had calmed down. His eyes drooped lazily, he yawned with boredom. Slave labour was another thing this prison was well known for. Most inmates would be sent down to the machinery rooms to work, Neki however did not. She was a girl and she was "_not good_" at that heavy duty jobs or so the guards relayed. She just shared the cleaning rota with a few other weak convicts. The machines were working today, you could hear the whir and clicks of many of them. It was quite hot also and the air was thick with fumes. It was a hazardous place.

The Guard focused on the abyss in the centre of the room. Each prison floor had a large hole in the centre that looked down upon other levels, the cells went round the outside of the walkway around the hole and the control panel and guard base was at one end, the lift at the other. _"What was that?"_ thought the guard. There it was again, small white specks were dropping into the abyss.

**"YO!"** Shouted a voice, followed by a white chunk that was hurled somewhat nearer the guard. It was actually a slither of soap but this was unknown to the guard.

**"YO!"** called the voice again, **"...fat ass!"** Raynor sneered and groped his tazor beside him. A chunk of soap hit him squarely on the head.

**"OI!"** He exclaimed standing up, **"Quiet'n down you or I'll come over there and shock your bitch!"** He growled with loathing. Tripps pushed himself against the bars again,

**"You won't fucking come near her!"** He bared his teeth, the guard stood tazor ready but still 20 paces away.

"**Stop it"** Neki tugged her cellmates shirt, **"You will get us into trouble."** He turned to face Neki,

**"He called you a bitch?!"**

**"That's nothing, I don't care,"** she shrugged and looked at the floor.

**"So you don't mind being called my bitch?"** he said with spite, of course he did not intend to use that term, and he was more annoyed about it, than she was. Neki tutted and lay down on her bed. Tripps kept his gaze on her, after a few seconds of silence the voice of Raynor replied,  
**"I'll do whatever I want with her and a convict like you isn't going to stop me," **smirked the guard. He hated Tripps and took this opportunity to let the convict into a rage, then actions would have to be taken. Tripps hurled himself against the door rattling it dangerously.  
**"You would like that wouldn't you."** His face looked eery behind the cold steel bars. His lucid eyes burned into the guards mask. **"You sick bastard! you would love to be me, stuck in a cell with her, wouldn't you? Yeah well too bad I'm still here! Why don't you come in and I'll beat the the shit out of you, you cunt...Fuck! You will never touch her."** He bared his teeth and waited.

Neki has curled up on the corner of the bed, half scared that Tripps would get hurt, and half of her felt proud. Like a warm fuzzy feeling, because Tripps was protecting her because he cared. But this was serious. The guard seethed and opened the door. Tripps launched himself at Raynor. The guard ducked and readied his tazor, he was just about to use it when Tripps came from the side and knocked the tazor from his hands and into the abyss. It was on. **"Go Neki!" **Tripps yelled through sharp breaths and kicks. He could only do damage to the armored guard by kicking with his heavy work boots whereas the guard dealt out punches and jabs to the unprotected convict.

**"What?!"** Neki squealed as she jumped off the bed.

**"Neki babe, Go! Run, leave me."** He ducked as the guard aimed a blow at his midriff. Nekis eyes suddenly filled up with tears. She couldn't leave.

**"NO!"** she yelled running forwards and trying to pull the guard of Tripps. She bit hard on the guards ear which was only protected by ear-guards at the top. He yelled and kicked out. He lashed out viciously forcing the two to be knocked back into the cell again. The shouts of guards could be heard running down in the corridors below.

Tripps ran out of the cell again trying to push the guard into the hole in the centre of the room, Neki stayed at the cell bars knowing her effort was quite useless but she refused to run, not without Tripps. At last another group of guards came to relieve Raynor who was nearly battered to death, most of his armor had been stripped by Tripps. All strangely were unarmed so they were fist fighting 7 to 1. Tripps was putting up a good fight but there was too many, Raynor started to join in again. Tripps yelled violently grabbed the nearest guards arm and with his remaining strength hurled the body into the fissure. Everything stopped, the guards stopped hitting Tripps, who stood body heaving, sweat running down his nose, blood spattered across his face and clothes. A sickening crunch of bones and metal as the guard hit the very bottom floor, then it started again. Tripps was in a fighting stance, fists ready. He swung a few punches at the first guards who ran at him but they all came after that and he was pushed back into the cell and the door slammed behind him. He wasn't finished though. He wrenched at the cell bars. The guards picked themselves up and shouted profanity at Tripps who was _"defeated"_ or so the guards called out. Raynor approached the cell after the others had gone, he had just finished re-attaching all his armor. His mask however was lost, and blood and gashes littered his face amongst his inky black tattoos and purple bruises.

**"Praxis will here about this you know,"** Raynor said calmly.

Tripps sneered his bloody face no more than 2 inches away from the guards, **"Praxis can suck my dick."**

Neki watched from the bed, her tears had dried up. She sniffed and watched Raynor limp away, as soon as he did though Tripps turned and collapsed on the bed beside her. **"Fuck,"** he groaned. Neki smiled and patted his back, she rolled him over gently to look at his face. It wasn't swollen, in fact his face was barely touched. there was only a few gashes on the side of his head but she was pretty sure it was someone else's blood that was smeared over his forehead and chin. She frowned and went to the tiny cracked sink in the corner. Wringing out a cloth she came back to him and washed the blood of his face. **"Why didn't you run?"** He sounded angry and upset.

**"I didn't want to leave you fighting with them. I wanted to stay with you."** She frowned and leant across his chest to look at the other side of his face.

**"Ow!"** he exclaimed, she leant back and looked at the expression on his face. She gave a sigh and lifted up his shirt,

**"Oh Mar, Tripps!"** His chest was almost black with bruises and as she rolled him onto his side she could see violent gashes ripped up his back.

**"It's their armor that did that, it's sharp,"** he smirked as if it was a good thing.

After an hour of trying to wash him and bandage him up with rags and clothes they both lay on the bunk beaten by exhaustion, or in Tripps' case, Krimzon Guards. Neki yawned and patted his arm to make sure he was okay before laying her head on a thin pillow. **"You alright?"** she whispered.

**"Yeah,"** he nodded. It was dark in the cell and the only light was the glow of the dim yellow lights that went around the outside of the corridor. His eyes gazed at the black shadows. He wouldn't be able to get to sleep, not with the pain in his side, he was sure he had broken ribs. He also had a bad feeling about that night. _What had he done? What if they hurt Neki next?_ He sighed and shivered with exhaustion.

_Like I said, I do not know if he kissed me good-bye or if it was in my dreams, it was so hard to tell, he was always in my dreams. But in the middle of the night I awoke because in my nightmare there was screaming. It was outside the cell, it was the fight from earlier except they had knives and they were stabbing him. But he wasn't dying he was just screaming, I could hear the blood gurgle in his throat as they stabbed his over and over again. That's when i woke up and raced to the doors of my cell, and the screaming was still there. It wasn't my dream, and it was him. I know that was him. It was coming from the building were they torture us. I remember kicking the cell bars and shaking them and trying to get out. I remember falling to the ground my hands desperately trying to grab something from outside the cell bars, but their was nothing there. Every scream was agony for me. I wanted to yell for help, I wanted someone to help him. I screamed as he screamed but as his last shout dwindled mine kept going until I was the only one left._

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**_End of Chapter 2_**

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